


when he walks in...

by corduroy_toad



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Knight Gon Freecss, Multi, Prince Killua Zoldyck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:02:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27202897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corduroy_toad/pseuds/corduroy_toad
Summary: yes it’s cheesy but we doin it anyway… Killua is a prince, part of the Royal Zoldyck family. As it draws closer and closer to Killua’s 18th birthday, his family decides that he must find a fitting girl to marry and carry on the royal bloodline. Unfortunately for them, Killua has never much fancied girls, he’d rather spend time alone. That is… until a goofy and somewhat naive knight is hired by the royal family as Killua’s guard. Gon is the embodiment of light, happiness, and all things good (at least in Killua’s eyes). Killua finds himself hopelessly obsessed with this human-sunflower hybrid and chaos ensues.
Relationships: Gon Freecs/Killua Zoldyck, Hisoka/Illumi Zoldyck, Kurapika/Leorio Paladiknight
Comments: 16
Kudos: 76





	1. why me?

“Other foot Kil” Illumi reprimanded, glancing up from the stack of official-looking documents he had been leafing through for the past hour or so. 

“I know! I know! God, why am I even doing this? It’s not like I’ll have to find a wife any time soon, can’t this just wait?” Killua huffed and flopped onto the stairs behind him. He glared up at his older brother as he wiped the beads of sweat that had been forming throughout the two hour practice lesson. Illumi sighed and set his papers down.

“Mother and Father certainly disagree. They’re hopeful you’ll be married by this time next year, you know.” Illumi raised his eyebrows at the brash laugh that escaped Killua. 

“It would do you good to listen to them, Kil. You’re heir to the throne and you must maintain a respectable image for our family. It’s just like Father says: it is not titles that honor men-”

“-but men that honor titles. Yeah, yeah I know” Killua groaned. “Why can’t you be the heir? You’re older and you actually want to live this life.” Bitterness seeped into his tone as he shuffled his feet on the polished marble floor. The older Zoldyck remained silent, large dark eyes simply peering down at the white mop of hair that belonged to his younger brother. 

“That’s not important. In any case, I suppose your lesson is over for today, I have to meet with father about these reports.” a slender finger tapped the stack of papers still lying on the table beside them. A smile tugged at Killua’s lips as he bowed his head towards his brother “finally free!” he thought giddily and pulled himself up from the staircase. He was just about to make a break for it through the large double doors leading to the gardens and eventually the looming forest behind the castle when Illumi turned back towards his younger brother.

“Ah. That reminds me: we have new staff coming later today, make sure to be back in the great hall by three. You’ll be meeting your official guard. Don’t worry, I made sure to ask father to ensure he was about your age, I know how much you dislike the older staff.” And with that Illumi turned the corner to the great hall, the soft tapping of his footsteps fading as Killua stood, thinking.

“A royal guard? Yeah, right. As if I’m going to let some idiot follow me wherever I go just because my parents said so.” Still, he glanced to the clock tower as he jogged through the gardens.  
“11:00” he noted aloud as he picked up his pace into the dark mass of trees and bushes ahead of him. 

The sound of leaves rustling in the breeze and the distant sound of songbirds played a familiar melody as Killua closed his eyes, leaning against the trunk of his favorite tree. He kicked his legs lazily and smiled to himself. As long as he could spend time here, alone with his thoughts, far from the ground and all the trouble that he dealt with there, he supposed a guard wouldn’t be so bad. Long ago he had desperately wanted a friend, he saw the children of castle employees playing together, laughing and screeching, chasing each other across the courtyard and clutching the pants and skirts of their parents to escape their peer’s wrath. He used to watch these games from his window, hoping to one day be able to play like that and to be able to have friends. He remembers a girl working as an apprentice to the Royal Guards whom he almost became friends with. She declined Killua’s offer to be friends but he knew that was not her decision. He felt sure that his mother and his brother made sure that Killua could never make friends. It was unnecessary for his family. Royals didn’t need friends. But Killua certainly wanted one.

“Killua!” The Queen called through his door, “Come meet the new employees” The prince rolled his eyes at his mother’s sing-songy voice. He hummed a response and glanced at his mirror once more. He didn’t know why he was nervous. If anyone should be nervous it would be his new royal guard. Just before he stepped out of his room he grabbed the crown that sat on his shelf. He hated wearing it so it stayed untouched for the most part. But special occasions called for formality and unfortunately this crown was the most important aspect of said formality.

By the time Killua made it to the Great Hall, the rest of his family was already there. His father and mother sitting stiffly in their ornate thrones with his three siblings standing to their sides, Kalluto and Illumi on one side and Alluka on the other. A soft smile formed on Killua’s lips as he walked over to his younger sister. Alluka turned to him and grinned. 

“Big brother!” she squealed “I haven’t seen you all day!” Killua felt all the tenseness melt from his body. He hated spending any time with his family but Alluka was different. Despite the constant mistreatment she had endured from the family, she remained a giggly and loving young girl. The only benefit to being head of the family in Killua’s eyes was that he could protect Alluka and ensure she remained happy and carefree forever. Killua’s train of thought was interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. The Zoldycks looked over in unison to where a short, tubby man stood with his arms behind his back.

“Your majesties” the short man shrilled. “I now present the newest hires of the royal family” and with that, the massive doors to the Great Hall creaked open and four figures stepped timidly through the threshold. Killua let his eyes rest on the figure farthest to the left. The figure was a tall, pale man with shifty eyes and an eccentric outfit. He glanced at his older brother who tended to wave off eccentricity as a distraction, especially when working, but was surprised to see a small smile tugging at his brother’s lips. Killua’s jaw almost dropped. His brother almost never showed emotion as clearly as this. Sure, his eyes gave away his emotions, not that anyone but Killua and Kalluto could decipher the miniscule changes in his look, but this was obvious. Anyone could see the upward turn of Illumi’s normally neutral mouth. Inwardly sighing, Killua turned his attention back to the newcomers, the person next to the shifty man was a serious looking man with small glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. Next to him was a shorter, blonde person wearing what looked to Killua like traditional clothing from whatever culture this person was from. Wracking his brain, he didn’t remember seeing this kind of clothing in any of his cultural history lessons. He shrugged, deciding to look at his textbooks later, to satisfy his curiosity and turned his attention to the last person in the row. 

Killua inhaled sharply as his gaze landed on a boy about his age. As the boy glanced at him Killua felt like he had forgotten how to breathe. Huge brown eyes locked on his as the boy grinned at Killua. Killua felt like he was melting on the spot. He glanced at the rest of his family to check if they had noticed him becoming a blushing puddle on the spotless red carpet. Fortunately for him, they had not. They seemed unaware that the sun itself had just walked into their Great Hall. With a start, Killua realized his father was talking, he had no idea how long he had been doing so but Killua quickly stiffened and brushed his trousers with his hands, dusting off the nonexistent dirt as he tuned in to the conversation happening between the King and the serious looking man. 

“Shit.” Killua thought, “I hope that creepy looking guy isn’t my guard, I missed what he said.”

“-the bookkeeper and archeologist. My name is Leorio Paladinight, your highness.” The man bowed and Killua heard his father grunt. The family seemingly turned their attention to the blonde person next to Leorio. 

“My name is Kurapika, your highness. I was hired as a strategist and advisor.” The King nodded as Kurapika bowed and then all eyes shifted to the last boy in the row. Killua pulled at a loose string on the hem of his shirt as the boy introduced himself.

“I’m Gon Freecss, your majesties” Killua could hear the smile in his voice. “I’m the Royal Guard for the Prince.” Killua snapped his head up to see Gon already looking at him. He bit back a smile as Gon raised his eyebrows at him. Killua willed his heart to stop beating so fast. He was sure every person in the room could hear it and he certainly did not want his family, or Gon for that matter, hearing it. 

Killua glanced up to see Gon peering at him curiously, in his embarrassment Killua had begun to scowl. He furrowed his brows and hastily excused himself before turning and walking up the large staircase to his room. 

Once inside, Killua groaned to himself, taking off the crown his mother had forced him to wear and setting it on a trunk near his door. He fell onto his bed with a heavy sigh. What had just happened? Killua had met plenty of people his age, other royals his age even but he had never felt so immediately pulled to them as he now felt for Gon. Killua covered his face with his hands and groaned once more. Whatever he was feeling, he was certain it wasn’t good...for him or for Gon. Eventually Killua pulled himself from his bed to change and read. 

A sharp knock pulled Killua from his thoughts and from the open books scattered across his bedroom floor. He tugged the door open to see Illumi and frowned. 

“What.” Killua barked at his older brother. Illumi blinked before speaking. 

“Listen, Kil, I know I promised to hire a guard about your age so that you wouldn’t avoid him at every turn but I was not expecting the one your age to be so...friendly” Illumi pursed his lips at the last word and seemingly, the thought of Gon. Killua immediately felt defensive and crossed his arms.

“What’s wrong with him being nice?” he scowled. “I’d rather have a guard that doesn’t treat me like a machine, like you and Father do.” Illumi let out a dry, emotionless laugh. 

“Kil, I hope you’re not planning on befriending him. Remember what Father and I taught you: Kings don’t need friends. Princes don’t either, especially not friends that work for you.” Killua couldn’t take it anymore, he slammed his door shut and pushed the deadbolt into place, ignoring Illumi’s incessant knocking in favor of his nest of open history books.


	2. nice to meet you

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GAHH!!! I'm so sorry this took so long (and that it's so short) I promise to be better about my schedule and making longer chapters :)  
> Anyway, thank you for reading this mess. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it. Have a great week you beautiful people.  
> -toad <3  
> ps: I figured out how to format so hopefully future chapters won't be as awkward to read haha

The sound of the clock chiming, marking midnight, was enough to pull Killua from his thoughts, face buried deep in some obscure text about a long lost civilization. He sat up straight and groaned, he must have spent hours hunched over, leafing through endless pages of information. Killua loved learning, knowledge was power, especially for someone like him. Not that he enjoyed listening to his tutor’s prattle on and on because he certainly did not, but reading a new fact or studying a certain animal was embarrassingly exciting for Killua.

Not bothering to brush his already ruffled hair, Killua rushed to change into his pajamas and turn out the lights, brain already foggy with the pull of sleep. Just as he pulled back his covers, he heard a soft knock at the door. He paused, none of his family knocked that timidly and he couldn’t think of any staff that would be looking for him at this time of night. Killua padded over to the door, carefully unlocking the deadbolt and slowly pulling the door open. There, mere inches from his face, stood Gon, eyes wide, as if he’d been caught doing something wrong. Killua jumped back before regaining his composure and raising a quizzical eyebrow at the tan boy in front of him.

“Hello?” he whispered. He wasn’t sure if Gon was supposed to be here but he certainly did not want his family to hear him.

“Hi!” Gon grinned, clearly not as concerned about the fact that it was the middle of the night and his parent's room sat only two doors down. Killua shushed him and pulled him by the arm, closing the door softly as Gon entered. Killua watched as Gon looked in awe at his room. He knew that his room was incredibly large compared to most others. As Gon turned back to face him, Killua was surprised to see that Gon was smiling as wide as ever, not an ounce of jealousy or resentment towards Killua’s unfair luck in life.

“So…” Gon started, “I’m sorry to wake you...if you were asleep...I was thinking maybe we should get to know each other a little bit since we’ll be spending every day together. We could do that tomorrow but you just seemed so cool when I first saw you so I want to talk to you.” He laughed. Killua thought his laugh sounded the way it felt to sit in a sunbeam on a cold day. Every bone in his body felt warm. He bit back a grin and looked up to his ceiling, pretending to mull the idea over.

“Alright,” Killua shrugged. “I wasn’t feeling very tired anyway.” That much was true, he no longer wanted to sleep since Gon was here. He sighed and plopped down onto his bed, eyes closed. He cracked one eye open after a few moments of silence, gaze landing on his new guard standing a few feet from the end of the bed, hands behind his back in a respectful manner. Killua rolled his eyes and sat up.

“Quit standing over there like I’m going to order you around. We’re getting to know each other, remember?” Killua quirked an eyebrow and patted the bed next to him. A lopsided grin appeared on Gon’s face as he practically jumped onto the enormous bed.

“So,” Gon turned excitedly to Killua, “Let’s start. I’m Gon Freecss and I’m…” he paused, seemingly counting in his head, “seventeen and a half. How about you?” He cocked his head at Killua. Killua huffed a laugh and smiled.

“I guess I’m Killua Zoldyck and I’m seventeen and… nine months old if we’re being that specific.” Gon nodded before continuing.

“Ok ok so… my favorite color is green, my favorite animal is… well it’s hard to pick but I really like frogs and fox bears” He looked expectantly to Killua.

“Well my favorite color is blue... that’s kinda obvious” he gestured to the blue curtains, chair, and duvet the two sat on. “I guess my favorite animal would be a cat.” he said after a moment of thought.

“Seems fitting,” Gon’s smile widened. “You look like a cat so it makes sense.” Killua felt his cheeks warm slightly. If he looked like a cat then that would make Gon an energetic puppy he thought to himself. The idea made him laugh a little, making Gon’s impossibly wide smile widen still. The two sat in a semi-comfortable silence as Gon seemingly thought of more questions to ask the silver-haired boy next to him. He straightened suddenly and tapped Killua’s knee.

“Hey” he whispered. Killua had no idea why he was whispering now after practically shouting in the hallway 15 minutes ago.

“What?” Killua whispered back. Why was he whispering now? Maybe it had something to do with the way Gon had leaned closer to his face, making Killua’s cheeks redden slightly. He hoped it wasn’t noticeable in the dim light of his bedroom.

“Can you ride that thing?” Gon pointed to the skateboard leaning against the wall next to his bed. Killua nodded and broke into a grin as he thought of something.

“Want me to teach you?” he peered up at Gon who was already watching him. Killua swore he could see eyes literally brighten and he jumped up.

“YES,” the spiky-haired boy practically shouted. “Please please teach me Killua it looks so cool!” Suddenly, he froze before bowing stiffly.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to address you so casually, your majesty. I won’t do it again I-” he was cut off by Killua’s hand cupped over his mouth, a soft smile adorning his face.

“Please. Just call me Killua. I don’t want any annoying formalities between us.” Gon’s face warmed. He didn’t understand what was happening. Of course, he had noticed how objectively attractive Killua was as soon as he stepped into the great hall but...he wasn’t attracted to the prince...was he? This was probably just because he was embarrassed about messing up the way he just did...yeah that was definitely it, he decided. No need to think about that anymore.

As Gon pulled himself from his thoughts he realized Killua’s hand was no longer on his mouth but was instead holding the skateboard as he looked at Gon expectantly.

“I assume you’ve never ridden a skateboard, right Gon?” he lowered the board to the ground and rolled it back and forth absentmindedly with his foot. Gon shook his head.

“Ok…let’s start with the basics then. Here, grab my hands and step onto the board. Try to make sure your feet sorta line up with where the wheels are for now.” Gon did so and beamed at Killua.

“I’m doing it!” he grinned.

* * *

The two laughed and talked into the early hours of the morning before Gon almost hit his head nodding off and Killua convinced him to call it a night before pushing Gon out the door. As he lay in bed, trying to fall asleep, his brain buzzed with the memories of his hours with Gon that night. He remembered how surprised he had been when Gon grabbed his hands for balance even though Killua himself was the one to suggest it. God, when did he become such a stupid sappy person? Scrubbing his face with his hands, he sighed. Sleep. He needed sleep. He’d act normal tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi :)  
> If anyone is reading this, thank you! This is my first fic so take it easy on me. If anyone is interested I’m hoping to update this every two weeks (hopefully that gives me enough time to battle my sporadic motivation and balance college applications and the like). Also, apologies for the formatting, I cannot for the life of me figure it out. I think that’s all I have to say so...have a great day! <3  
> -Toad


End file.
